President John Dramani Mahama has announced that Ghana and Tanzania will establish a Permanent Joint Commission for Cooperation to structure the framework for collaboration between the two countries.
The President made this disclosure on Monday during a bilateral meeting with Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan at the State House in Arusha, Tanzania.
He revealed that discussions with Tanzania’s Foreign Minister prior to the meeting established that the two countries do not currently have a permanent joint commission for cooperation, an issue both sides want to address quickly before a possible state visit being negotiated.
“We were discussing with the foreign minister before my foreign minister came and realized that we don’t have a permanent joint commission for cooperation between us. And so it’s an issue we want to deal with as quickly as possible before the possible state visit that we are negotiating,” President Mahama stated.
He noted that there are many areas where Ghana and Tanzania can collaborate, pointing out that both countries share the fact of being mining economies where mining accounts for a substantial percentage of GDP.
President Mahama disclosed that Ghana recently has taken steps to exercise more sovereignty over its natural wealth, particularly with regards to gold, which is the country’s biggest export.
He revealed that the government has tightened the export regime to account for every gold leaving Ghanaian shores, which has proved beneficial as gold exports in the small-scale mining sector increased from 63 tons to 104 tons within nine months of the new regulation.
The President stated that this has resulted in a substantial inflow of $10 billion into the Ghanaian economy within nine months.
“And so I believe that we can share some of our experiences because we need to exercise more sovereignty over our resources so that we can reinvest in creating the opportunities for our people,” President Mahama said.
He noted that both Ghana and Tanzania have the same demographic profile, with almost 60% of the population aged 35 and below, creating an urgent responsibility on leaders to create opportunities for young people to find work, begin families, and live decent lives.
President Mahama observed that Tanzania has a very developed agricultural space where agricultural exports constitute a substantial part of GDP, while Ghana is the second largest exporter of cocoa.
He disclosed that Ghana is addressing the cocoa crisis following a price crash from $7,200 to less than $3,000 per ton over one month, explaining that Ghana produces the crop but does not control the price because it exports raw beans while all value addition is done in Europe.
The President revealed that from the next crop season, Ghana will issue financial instruments domestically to raise money in cedis to buy cocoa, ending the practice of taking money from outside to purchase cocoa beans and collateralizing the beans to foreign financiers.
He announced that Ghana will process at least 400,000 tons of its almost 700,000-ton crop locally to add value before export, utilizing the country’s 400,000 metric tons capacity of cocoa processing.
President Mahama stated that Ghana has a comparative advantage in fintechs and the cyberspace, with cyber security experts and fintech adoption flourishing, allowing both countries to share experiences in digitalization.
He indicated that once the joint commission is set up, by the time of the state visit, both countries will be able to sign memoranda of understanding to structure the framework for cooperation.
The President congratulated President Hassan on her election and expressed regret at what happened after, commending Tanzania’s transparency in establishing an independent commission to investigate the events.
He stated that such commissions are important for learning lessons to prevent reoccurrence, expressing support for reconciliation efforts to bring all people together.
President Mahama noted that extreme partisanship sometimes blinds people and power is sought at any cost, a legacy of multi-party democracy, but expressed belief that Tanzania’s efforts are in the right direction and will yield the right results.
He described his visit to Arusha as his first, praising the city’s greenery and beauty, revealing that he videoed the view from his hotel window and sent it to his wife, suggesting it as their next vacation destination.
The President noted that Ghana and Tanzania share historic relations, with their first presidents Kwame Nkrumah and Mwalimu Nyerere being very close friends, creating a joint history that has metamorphosed into shared values that make it easy to build even closer relationships.